"I wonder what new doors to evangelism might be opened in sophisticated, tolerant, politically correct America if Christians started expressing their faith by encouraging those who possessed artifacts of magic or unclean books to burn them publicly?" -- C. Peter Wagner, from The Book of Acts: A Commentary, page 441 (1994, Regal Books)

Texas governor Rick Perry's August 6th, 2011 The Response prayer event, the de-facto launch of his presidential bid, was dominated by the apostles of C. Peter Wagner's New Apostolic Reformation. This article documents a little-noticed aspect of this little-noticed movement.

Top NAR leaders, including C. Peter Wagner, Cindy Jacobs, Ed Silvoso and, Chuck Pierce, have repeatedly emphasized in their writings the need for believers to destroy or neutralize, by burning, smashing, or flushing down toilets, objects deemed to be unholy, including profane books and "idolatrous" religious texts (such as Books of Mormon), religious relics (such as statues of Catholic saints, the Buddha, or Hindu gods), and native art (such as African masks, Hopi Indian Kachina dolls, and totem poles.)

According to New Apostolic Reformation doctrine, objects to be destroyed include those associated with Mormonism, Islam, Jehovah's Witnesses, Hinduism, eastern religions, Christian Science, native religions, and Baha'i.

[image, right: One of the The New Apostolic Reformation's conduits for spreading its ideology are the Transformations videos of George Otis, Jr. Transformations IV, "Let The Seas Resound" (2004) shows the burning of Fijian native art]

NAR theologians, including C. Peter Wagner, sometimes cite, as a Biblical justification for the destruction of artifacts, an incident described in the New Testament's Book of Acts in which the magicians of Ephesus, under the influence of Apostle Paul, gathered together and burned their books of magic (thus weakening, according to Wagner, the hold of the goddess Diana over the city of Ephesus.) But Wagner also provides a more contemporary model.

In books from 1994 up into 2008, C. Peter Wagner has repeatedly cited, as a model for societal "transformation", the efforts of the Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola in late-15th Century Florence, Italy.

Savonarola is credited with instigating the mass-burning in Florence of books and cultural objects deemed to incite sin (including by some reports several paintings by the Renaissance master Botticelli), in an event that has become known to historians as the "Bonfire of the Vanities."

On page 96 of his book Changing Church: How God Is Leading His Church Into The Future (2004, Regal/Gospel Light), bemoaning the lack of significant city `transformation' in the U.S., Wagner notes that, while evangelists have invested "huge amounts of time" and "large sums of money", "Even after 10 years, we cannot point to a single city in the United States that has undergone a sociologically verifiable transformation!" In a subsection titled "Hope Giving Examples", Wagner then writes,

"The lack of examples of cities that have been transformed is not to imply, however, that social transformation through God's power is impossible. We may not have many examples, but we do have some.
Florence, Italy. Girolamo Savonarola's powerful ministry in Florence, Italy, back in the fifteenth century gives us a historical case study. Here is one description of what happened to the city after Savonarola prayed and prophesied:

"The wicked city government [of Florence] was overthrown, and Savonarola taught the people to set up a democratic form of government. The revival brought tremendous moral change. The people stopped reading vile and worldly books. Merchants made restitution to the people for the excessive profits they had been making. Hoodlums and street urchins stopped singing sinful songs and began to sing hymns in the streets. Carnivals were forbidden and forsaken.
Huge bonfires were made of worldly books and obscene pictures, masks, and wigs. A great octagonal pyramid of worldly objects was erected in the public square in Florence. It towered in seven stages sixty feet high and 240 feet in circumference. While bells tolled, the people sang hymns and the fire burned." "

In his 2008 book Dominion! How Kingdom Action Can Change The World (2008, Chosen Books), Peter Wagner again cites the same passage, introducing it, on page 166 of his book, with "To show that it [transformation] can be done, I love to go back in history to Florence, Italy, where Girolamo Savanarola [sic] led a notable example of transformation. I have told the story in other books, but it is so encouraging that I want to repeat it again".

During his short-lived period of political influence in Florence, Savonarola's overriding obsession, which Wagner fails to note, was legislating burning at the stake for sodomy. Wagner's apostles have been in the forefront of organizing against LGBT rights in the United States and have numerous, close ties to one of the professed authors of Uganda's internationally condemned, so-called "kill the gays" bill, apostle Julius Oyet.

Both Wagner and Cindy Jacobs explicitly refer to the destruction of books, and cultural and religious artifacts, as "book burning" and "spiritual house cleansing"; believers are encouraged to purge personal possessions, that allow demonic intrusion into their lives and which represent "witchcraft" and "idolatry", and gather up these objects to bring to collection points, for incineration--with the help of gasoline if necessary.

[video, below: at 54 seconds into this three-minute compilation of Cindy Jacobs video, Jacobs tells pastors in her audience to encourage their church members to burn items associated "witchcraft" and "sorcery"]

Underscoring the point that this is a current objective for New Apostolic Reformation leaders, during a worship service that Jacobs held on October 7, 2008, at Ed Silvoso's 18th International Institute on Nation Transformation, in Mar del Plata, Argentina, Cindy Jacobs called on [video link] assembled local area pastors at the conference,

"Pastors, sanctify your people! You go and you tell 'em, if you have any idols in their homes we're gonna to burn 'em! If you have any witchcraft items in your homes, you bring 'em Sunday and we're gonna burn 'em! We're not gonna have witchcraft in this church!"

Wagner's apostles Chuck Pierce and Tom Schlueter (who anointed presidential candidate Rick Perry in a 2009 ceremony, as covered in a 2011 story from the Texas Observer) have been described as performing ceremonies, to break collective curses over entire Native American tribal groups that were allegedly incurred through Baal worship, which involved the ritual smashing of antique Native American pottery.

According to an account formerly posted on the website of Trinity Apostolic Prayer Network (then headed by apostle Schlueter), Tom Schlueter participated in an April 27, 2007 ceremony at which, as the report described,

"John Benefiel then informed the gathering of the history of Baal in the region. He shared the story of the Baal caves in the panhandle of Oklahoma where cave drawings depict the presence of those who worshiped Baal... Jay [Swallow] taught on the unholy trio of Baal, Asherah and Leviathan. He spoke of their proliferation into the land. His teaching led us up to the prophetic act of smashing pottery that depicted Baal and Leviathan. Knowing that this authority lies with those who dwelt on this land first, it was necessary that it be carried out by a Native American.

[...]

Jay then proceeded to lead Mark in the smashing of vessels. One vessel depicted the snakelike features of Leviathan and the other depicted the Sun god - Baal. They were placed in trash bags and Mark used a dogwood rod presented to Jay by Chuck Pierce to destroy the pottery. It shattered into many pieces at the joyous shouts of the body of Christ. Tom Schlueter, as an apostolic leader of the region, was invited by Jay and John to lead the group through the Divorce Decree."

On page 440 of his book The Book of Acts: A Commentary (1994, Regal/Gospel Light), Wagner estimates the cash value of the "huge public book burning" described in the Book of Acts, at Ephesus, to have been US$ 4 million. "Quite a book burning!" gushes Wagner, who then recounts,

"A similar modern-day book-burning initiative in which the Word of the Lord grew mightily was the three-year evangelistic strategy implemented in Resistencia, Argentina, by Ed Silvoso's Harvest Evangelism organization not long ago. The evangelical community in Resistencia in those three years, and two more years following, grew some 500 percent-remarkable church growth in any nation! As part of the series of evangelistic rallies held at the end of the three-year period, a book-burning ceremony was held every evening, the first such activity I have been able to find on record in any part of Latin America.
Silvoso describes the event as follows: "In anticipation of an Ephesus-type response, a 100-gallon drum was set up to the left of the platform for the new converts to dispose of satanic paraphernalia. As people came forward, they dumped all kinds of occult-related items into it, many of them wrapped in newspaper. Before praying for the people, gasoline was poured on the contents of the drum, a match was struck and every evil thing inside went up in flames. Many times, spontaneous deliverances occurred when a specific fetish was burned and the spell was broken." "

In his book The Church In The Workplace: How God's People Can Transform Society (2006, Regal/Gospel Light), on page 40, Peter Wagner again identifies `Savanarola' [sic] as a model Christian reformer: "Let's look back to Florence, Italy, before the Protestant Reformation. Girolamo Savanarola [sic] was a reformer before his time. He was a precursor of things to come. He prayed. He prophesied. He preached. He had an apostolic anointing to influence large numbers of people."

Wagner then cites the same glowing account, of Florence's "transformation" under Savonarola, that he references in his work The Book of Acts. In a subsequent book, Apostles Today: Biblical Government For Biblical Power (2007, Regal/Gospel Light), Wagner identifies Savonarola [misspelled as 'Savanarola'], as having been an "apostle" (page 7).

In his book Hard-Core Idolatry - Facing the Facts, (1999, Wagner Institute For Practical Ministry) C. Peter Wagner describes the Resistencia, Argentina incident in greater detail, on pages 39-40, in a subsection titled "Burn The Idols!":

Burn The Idols!
Doris was preparing to travel to Argentina with Cindy Jacobs for the climactic evangelistic campaign. As she was reading scripture the morning she was to leave, the Holy Spirit told her that in Resistencia they must burn the idols, like the magicians did in Ephesus. Ed Silvoso, Cindy Jacob and the Resistencia pastors agreed.

Like Cindy Jacobs, Wagner terms the immolation of such demonized objects a "spiritual housecleaning", and provides a substantial list of these things which "might be bringing honor to the spirits of darkness":

Believers at the Resistencia evangelizing crusade were encouraged to gather up the evil things (even "expensive items" notes Wagner), from their homes, bring them to a rally wrapped in newspaper, to protect privacy, and cast them into a 55-gallon drum. As Wagner exults,

"The drum was heaped to overflowing! They poured gasoline on it and set it on fire. This was a major power encounter, because the witches and warlocks had surrounded the area and done their occult sacrifices, killing animals, burning incense, and sending the most powerful curses they could muster toward the evangelists. When the flames shot up, a woman right behind Doris screamed and manifested a demon, which Doris immediately cast out!"

New Apostolic Reformation leaders also symbolically target individuals. Peter Wagner, Ed Silvoso, and Cindy Jacobs each describe in their books the magical incineration of an animist leader named "San La Muerte", during their early 1990s evangelism crusades in the Argentine city of Resistencia.

According to Rene' Holvast, author of Spiritual Mapping in the United States and Argentina, 1989-2005: A Geography of Fear (2008, Brill) Resistencia, Argentina was the crucible for the development of many of the spiritual mapping/spiritual warfare ideas and practices peculiar to Wagner's New Apostolic Reformation.

In a subsection of Hard-Core Idolatry titled "The Fall Of San La Muerte" (page 39), Wagner writes,

"Many unbelievers came to Christ that night, and each one was instructed to go home, do their own spiritual housecleaning, and bring their objects to the bonfire the following night. As this went on, night after night, San La Muerte's power diminished...

As if to headline how the aggressive onslaught against idolatry had succeeded, God permitted a spectacular event to occur one week before the evangelistic campaign. Resistencia's high priestess of San La Muerte had been smoking in her bed. She fell asleep, and her bed caught fire. The only things that were consumed by fire were the bed, the woman, and her idol of San La Muerte located in the next room! No wonder the city was ready to hear the word of God!"

In his bookThat None Shall Perish: How To Reach Entire Cities For Christ Through Prayer Evangelism (1994, Regal/Gospel Light), Ed Silvoso provides a similar version of the alleged incident:

"San La Muerte's priests declared war on the Church. However, God was in control, and He showed it. At the height of the conflict, San La Muerte's high priestess died in strange circumstances--the mattress she was sleeping on caught fire and burned her to death. Nothing else burned except her, the bed and the idol of San La Muerte in the room next door! The fear of God fell upon the city."

Silvoso's subsequent account of the mass-evangelizing campaign in Resistencia references Ephesus and describes the same mass-burning incident covered by Jacobs and Wagner:

In anticipation of an Ephesus-type response, a 100-gallon drum was set up to the left of the platform for the new converts to dispose of satanic paraphernalia. As people came forward, they dumped all kinds of occult-related items into it... gasoline was poured on the contents of the drum, a match was struck and every evil thing inside went up in flames. Many times, spontaneous deliverances occurred when a specific fetish was burned and the spell was broken.

"Deliverance" is a common New Apostolic Reformation shorthand expression for "deliverance from a demon spirit." But, per Silvoso's account, the realm of Christian conquest was not merely in the spiritual realm but also in local politics:

"The mayor acknowledged Jesus Christ as his Savior. Later on, two of the candidates for governor prayed to receive Jesus into their hearts. Also, medical doctors, journalists, one senator, aldermen, politicians and lawyers responded. At one point, we found ourselves inside the Provincial Court of Appeals with seven appellate judges, five of whom confessed Christ as their personal Savior. The city had indeed heard the voice of God!"

Photos from his Global Harvest ministry in the past several years have shown Ed Silvoso meeting with Ugandan First Lady Janet Museveni, Former President of the Philippines Gloria Arroyo, and Former Lt. Governor of Hawaii James "Duke" Aiona (who ran for governor and was defeated in the 2010 election).

Wagner's Texas apostle Alice Patterson, who stood alongside presidential candidate and Texas governor Rick Perry at The Response, calls Silvoso her "spiritual father." Ed Silvoso wrote the forward to Patterson's 2010 book Bridging The Racial and Political Divide: How Godly Politics Can Transform A Nation, and a division of his Harvest Evangelism ministry publishes the book.

On page 223-224 of her book Deliver Us From Evil: Putting A Stop To The Occultic Influence Invading Your Home and Community (2001 Regal/Gospel Light), Cindy Jacobs elaborates on the need to destroy "occult objects" which believers may possess, in a chapter subsection titled "Destroying Occult Objects":

" There are certain occult items that we are are not to possess. If we own any of the following objects, we need to get rid of them. If the object was at any time worshiped as a god or used in the worship of a false god, then we should burn it or otherwise destroy it.
It is not unusual for tourists to bring home keepsakes from faraway lands that have demonic attachments or are idols. What we often do not realize is that these objects can curse us. For instance, many people purchase African masks that have been used in worship ceremonies. Others buy native art such as Kachina dolls, statues of Hindu gods and statues of Buddha. Back home, havoc starts to reign in the form of sickness, tragedy, depression or marriage break-ups--usually the person does not know why these things have happened."

Jacobs then goes on to describe, on pages 224-225, the same "book burning" at Resistencia mentioned by Peter Wagner and Ed Silvoso, under a chapter subheading titled, "Book Burning in Argentina":

"Years ago, when Doris Wagner and I were in Resistencia, Argentina, the Lord gave her the idea that we should have people bring their occult objects, light a fire and burn them, following the example recorded in Acts 19:19. Scripture says that after the objects were burned in Ephesus, the Word of the Lord grew mighty and prevailed.
The leaders of the meetings in Argentina decided to burn the objects in a big oil drum. Doris instructed the people to wrap the objects with newspaper if the people did not want others to know what they were bringing. At the beginning of the meeting, in response to a prior announcement, people brought a wide assortment of occult objects. Some people also carried objects that had caused them to be in some kind of bondage or another. People brought idols, love potions, Macumba paraphernalia, pornographic magazines and unknown objects wrapped in newspaper.
The leaders poured gasoline into the oil drum and then lit it with fire."

Jacobs claimed the ceremonial act of burning the objects had an immediate and dramatic effect, causing manifestation of the demons associated with the evil objects: "As the occult objects burned, some of the people actually screamed and cried out in anguish as demons manifested themselves." The demons were, of course, cast out and, emphasizes Jacobs, "just as happened in Ephesus centuries ago, many people came forward and were saved."

Making an enthusiastic plug for present-day "Bonfires of the Vanities", Jacobs continued,

" I think Church leaders today should consider having similar book burnings. Pastor Jim Marocco did this when he planted a church on the island of Maui. He had people bring and burn occult items, specifically objects that were worshiped as part of their native religions. After the objects were destroyed, his church experienced great growth."

Jacobs also directs readers to a more thorough treatment on what she describes as "spiritual house cleansing" : "For an excellent, more in-depth study of spiritual house cleansing, I suggest that you read Ridding Your Home of Spiritual Darkness by Chuck Pierce and Rebecca Wagner Sytsema" (1999, Wagner Institute For Practical Ministry.) In their book, Pierce and Wagner Sytsema advise,

"Take what can be burned and burn it. If it cannot be burned, pass it through the fire (as a symbolic act of obedience) and then destroy it by whatever other means are available to you such as smashing or even flushing (I have known people to do this with jewelry that cannot be destroyed in other ways)!
Once you have destroyed the object, renounce any participation you or your family have had with that object (whether knowingly or unknowingly) and ask the Lord to forgive you.

[...]

Because the legal right for demonic forces linked with that object has been removed through these acts, you can now command any demonic forces linked with that object to leave in the Name of Jesus.
Repeat these steps for every object that needs to go." (pages 59-60)

Pierce and Sytsema provide a list of objects to burn, destroy, or flush down toilets that is very similar to Peter Wagner's list, only longer:

"Buddhas... Hindu images; fertility gods or goddesses (or any type of god or goddess); Egyptian images; Greek gods; gargoyles; kachina dolls, totem poles, or any other native figure that depicts or glorifies a "spirit" or demonic being; evil depictions of creatures such as lions, dogs, dragons, cats, or any other creature made with demonic distortions; or any other image of any person, idol, god, or demonic figure which is considered an object of worship or spiritual power in any culture of the world...

A commonly seen item in the United States that falls into this category is images of the Virgin Mary, who is often worshiped by many as an equal to Jesus. C. Peter Wagner calls the worship of Mary a "deceptive adaptation" by the Queen of Heaven, a high-ranking demonic principality, to gain worship that should belong to God." (page 20)

Pierce and Sytsema also target more contemporary cultural objects. In a final subsection, "Other Objects," we learn that,

"Our homes may be filled with other items that do not bring glory to God and may attract demonic activity. These would include games such as Dungeons and Dragons or Masters of the Universe, in addition to a myriad of demonic or violent video games; books and magazines devoted to fantasy; comic books, posters, movies, or music with demonic, violent, or sexual themes; pornography; illegal drugs; sensual art, books, or "toys"; or a number of other things that are demonic, illegal, immoral, or contrary to God's Word.
By allowing any of these types of things into our homes we give the enemy a legal right to invade our lives in ways that he would otherwise not have." (page 22)

Also included in the categories of objects to destroy are all those associated with Yoga, secret societies, and the Occult.

The destruction of native art and objects associated with non-NAR religious beliefs is also a theme depicted in the New Apostolic Reformation's globally-distributed Transformations video series from George Otis, Jr., which serves as one of the major conduits for spreading movement ideology. For example, the 2004 Transformations video "Let The Seas Resound" shows the incineration of native Fijian ceremonial masks.

An upcoming story at Talk To Action will further expand on and explore themes covered in this story including Transformations video depictions of the destruction of native artifacts, and prayer warfare attacks on non-Christian leaders and places of worship.

It's a shame that desirable and even expensive native artwork is being destroyed. Maybe they should add the 'Left Behind' novels and videos to the flames. Kidding.

I regret to this day burning my old record albums. I had joined the Nazarene Church, and although they did not tell me to, I knew that the visiting preacher might not appreciate my Alice Cooper and Black Sabbath albums, so into the fire they went. I have long since left the Nazarenes and gravitated to a more 'liberal' christian position, and I now 'rue the day' I burned up the classic 'Zipper Catches Skin' album.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zipper_Catches_Skin

After T. Cullen Davis was acquitted in 1977 of murder of two people at his estranged wife's house, he found God, and he and Religious Right figure James Robison destroyed Asian religious artifacts with a sledgehammer as being anti-Christian. It also reminds me of the history of iconoclasm in Eastern Christianity (something which NAR members probably know nothing about.) How is this different from what the Taliban did when they destroyed the Buddha figures of Bamiyan? Perhaps the NAR needs to be reminded of Heinrich Heine's saying that "they may start by burning books, but they will end by burning people. They also don't mention that the Florentines finally tired of Savonarola and he wound up being executed for heresy.

Unfortunately, waves of destructive religious fanaticism recur too frequently. John Amos Comenius, considered the father of modern European history ~ he was the first one to put illustrations in children's text books ~ saw his entire library burned twice in his lifetime. The loss of religious art and architecture under Cromwell was horrendous.

If the NAR think they have to utterly destroy objects on order to "overcome demons," then in a backhanded kind of way they are imputing to those objects religious power. It seems to me that a more effective approach would be simply to laugh at any implication that the objects have religious meaning. It can only be an idol if you believe in it, and they have to believe in it or they wouldn't need to destroy it. But I guess that doesn't fit with the NAR worldview.

was the great Library of Alexandria housed in the Serapium was burned by a Christian mob as a result of the order of the Roman Emperor in 391. An estimated 400,000 scrolls - the most extensive collection of knowledge at the time - were burned. The NAR is indeed dangerous, since they know their acts will someday incite violence - and they don't particularly care.

Destruction of "artwork" could very well be against the law. Complex and esoteric decorations are generally the hallmarks of burial gifts, and if they'd come from an archaeological site or unmarked (Native American for instance) grave, destroying them is probably in violation of a number of laws (I am almost dead certain, but haven't read on artifacts law in a while and don't remember specifics).

I know that violating (and destroying) burials is a major federal offense. You NEVER destroy burial mounds or burials, or even disturb them, even if they are on private property. I'll check on it, but I think that extends to "artwork", and especially if the artwork in question is of significance to a specific culture - it's a violation of civil rights as well.

It would be very easy for this move of theirs (been around for a while, but it seems to be growing in militancy) to soon extend to destroying archaeological sites. Of course, they don't care... but they could be hurting themselves as well as everyone else in the long run. (Archaeologists have made discoveries that helped to explain illnesses, development of foods, etc..)

Indeed, we know of plants that used to be domesticated, but haven't been in a long time and have reverted to the wild forms.

Jung's thought on religious zeal come to mind in a quote he applied to both religion and to human relationships - "Where love stops, power begins, and violence and terror." His explanation of the root cause and then effect of projection. Book burning would have been an early event that determined the ups and downs of my own personal course. The local chapter of the moral majority burned Brave New World. The local newspaper quoted the leader as saying he had never read the book that he and his followers burned but that it advocated a sinful lifestyle. The irony being obvious, I remarked he was a fool who did not understand satire and his followers were twice the fool - the twice fools were my high school principals and teachers. Everything old is new again, sad to say, in the case of the re-emerging middle ages. But the work you are doing is important in that history is cyclical and very prone, it seems, to not spiraling upwards. At least not without considerable will and effort.

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